First-year undergraduates enter higher education with innate talents, and with skills and knowledge gained from their high school curriculum and from life experience. In regard to the MENA region, however, they have had few opportunities to absorb credible information. When introducing undergraduate research in MENA Studies, the facilitator must design a course that balances primary sources, historical context, and credible current information in accessible formats to support the learners’ natural curiosity. Course modules should offer a range of introductory material that connects the learner to broader opportunities for research, knowledge acquisition, and production.This presentation will provide a review of materials and assignments that are designed to move students away from pedagogical teacher-centered approaches in MENA Studies toward self-directed research questions that also support an emerging self-awareness of the learner as an independent scholar and as an active, engaged global citizen. Malcolm Knowles (2011), an adult educator who popularized the learning theory of andragogy, or self-direction, in adult learners, makes an essential point about adult learners: that the goals and purposes of adult learners are in their control. While pedagogy requires that teachers should design essential learning opportunities, one goal of undergraduate research is to foster self-directed research skills. The teacher becomes a supportive facilitator of the learner’s goals by fostering the learner’s self-concept as a competent researcher and scholar and a more capable, globally-aware citizen .